Cloudbirds are flying on their own

September 08, 2011|By Jessica Hopper, Special to the Tribune

After The M's announced a "long hiatus" in 2009, guitarists Joey King and Josh Chicoine weren't immediately interested in starting another rock band. The M's had spent the previous few years touring and recording, slogging away on the traditional career arc of an independent rock band.

The two tried having a YouTube-only project, 123 Clap. "We'd get together with a couple other guys and learn the song someone had written, and then film it, edit and post it on YouTube," says King. Though that was fun, it wasn't quite what King was wanting.

"I'm a country guy," says King, who grew up in Arkansas listening to his dad's Willie Nelson records. "Josh, he's the more mainstream-folk guy, and Glenn (Rischke, former M's keyboardist), he's the harmonies and arrangements guy. One of the reasons I wanted to start Cloudbirds was to do something quieter. I'd been listening to a lot of stuff like Gene Clark, Byrds, and Crosby, Stills and Nash."

The influence of CSN is evident in Cloudbirds, from the drawling harmonies to the all-guitar trio's melding of folky intimacy and rich country lyricism. "We've joked about doing a Halloween tribute to CSN, but none of us want to be the David Crosby; we all want to be the Graham Nash."

While doing 123 Clap, King and Chicoine realized they still had some singer-songwritery songs left from The M's days that were worth working on.

"During The M's, Joey and I would always get together and write, not even for the M's, just to work on stuff together. Glenn was always around, so we thought to ask him to join." Two months later, in fall 2010, Cloudbirds debuted with a residency at hip Logan Square bar The Burlington, a favorite hangout for DJs and musicians. It certainly didn't hurt that Archer Prewitt of local legends The Sea and Cake, who hadn't performed solo in years, sat in for a set.

Still, it was a new scenario — though The M's were modestly popular when they broke up, Cloudbirds' sound was a departure — and the "ex-members" factor didn't automatically mean packed houses for the group's weekly set. "Sometimes it was packed; other times it was 10 or 12 people," says King, insisting that the band was fine with both. "This is a whole new thing, a totally different venture, so that's fine if no one puts a connection between Cloudbirds and The M's."

Right now the three are plugging away on a debut album, recording in their home studio as well as a friend's studio. When asked what Cloudbirds pull from their past in The M's, King says both bands had a focus on vocals, but in the new band's recordings you get how different it is from the old, loud ways. "We are doing everything live — I wanted (this recording) to be more natural, and raw — three guys, three guitars, no effects, no overdubs, it's pure."